Chapter 9: Morphological Image Processing (Digital Image Processing – Gonzalez/Woods)

1. Chapter 9: Morphological Image Processing(Digital Image Processing – Gonzalez/Woods) In form and in feature, face and limb, I grew so like my brother That folks got taking me for him And each for one another. Henry Sambrooke Leigh, Carols of Cockayne, The Twins

2. Preview • “Morphology “ – a branch in biology that deals with the form and structure of animals and plants. • “Mathematical Morphology” – as a tool for extracting image components, that are useful in the representation and description of region shape. • The language of mathematical morphology is – Set theory. • Unified and powerful approach to numerous image processing problems. • In binary images , the set elements are members of the 2-D integer space – Z2. where each element (x,y) is a coordinate of a black (or white) pixel in the image.

3. 9.1 Basic Concepts in Set Theory • Subset • Union • Intersection disjoint / mutually exclusive • Complement • Difference • Reflection • Translation

4. Logic Operations Involving Binary Pixels and Images • The principal logic operations used in image processing are: AND, OR, NOT (COMPLEMENT). • These operations are functionally complete. • Logic operations are preformed on a pixel by pixel basis between corresponding pixels (bitwise). • Other important logic operations : XOR (exclusive OR), NAND (NOT-AND) • Logic operations are just a private case for a binary set operations, such : AND – Intersection , OR – Union, NOT-Complement.

6. 9.2.1 Dilation • Dilation is used for expanding an element A by using structuring element B • Dilation of A by B and is defined by the following equation: • This equation is based 0n obtaining the reflection 0f B about its origin and shifting this reflection by z. • The dilation of A by B is the set of all displacements z, such that and A overlap by at least one element. Based On this interpretation the equation of (9.2-1) can be rewritten as:

7. 9.2.1 Dilation – Example 1

8. 9.2.1 Dilation – Example 2

9. 9.2.1 Dilation – A More interesting Example

10. 9.2.2 Erosion • Erosion is used for shrinking of element A by using element B • Erosion for Sets A and B in Z2, is defined by the following equation: • This equation indicates that the erosion of A by B is the set of all points z such that B, translated by z, is combined in A.

11. 9.2.2 Erosion – Example 1

12. 9.2.2 Erosion – Example 2

13. Duality between dilation and erosion • Dilation and erosion are duals of each other with respect to set complementation and reflection. That is, • One of the simplest uses of erosion is for eliminating irrelevant details (in terms of size) from a binary image.

14. Erosion and Dilation summary

15. 9.3 Opening And Closing • Opening – smoothes contours , eliminates protrusions • Closing – smoothes sections of contours, fuses narrow breaks and long thin gulfs, eliminates small holes and fills gaps in contours • These operations are dual to each other • These operations are can be applied few times, but has effect only once

16. 9.3 Opening And Closing • Opening – • First – erode A by B, and then dilate the result by B • In other words, opening is the unification of all B objects Entirely Contained in A

18. 9.3 Opening And Closing • Closing – • First – dilate A by B, and then erode the result by B • In other words, closing is the group of points, which the intersection of object B around them with object A – is not empty

20. Use of opening and closing for morphological filtering

21. 9.4 The Hit-or-Miss Transformation • A basic morphological tool for shape detection. • Let the origin of each shape be located at its center of gravity. • If we want to find the location of a shape , say – X , at (larger) image, say – A : • Let X be enclosed by a small window, say – W. • The local background of X with respect to W is defined as the set difference (W - X). • Apply erosion operator of A by X, will get us the set of locations of the origin of X, such that X is completely contained in A. • It may be also view geometrically as the set of all locations of the origin of X at which X found a match (hit) in A.

22. 9.4 The Hit-or-Miss Transformation Cont. • Apply erosion operator on the complement of A by the local background set (W – X). • Notice, that the set of locations for which X exactly fits inside A is the intersection of these two last operators above. This intersection is precisely the location sought. Formally: If B denotes the set composed of X and it’s background – B = (B1,B2) ; B1 = X , B2 = (W-X). The match (or set of matches) of B in A, denoted is:

23. Hit-or-Miss exp:

24. 9.4 The Hit-or-Miss Transformation • The reason for using these kind of structuring element – B = (B1,B2) is based on an assumed definition that, two or more objects are distinct only if they are disjoint (disconnected) sets. • In some applications , we may interested in detecting certain patterns (combinations) of 1’s and 0’s. and not for detecting individual objects. • In this case a background is not required. and the hit-or-miss transform reduces to simple erosion. • This simplified pattern detection scheme is used in some of the algorithms for – identifying characters within a text.

25. 9.5 Basic Morphological Algorithms • 1 – Boundary Extraction • 2 – Region Filling • 3 – Extraction of Connected Components • 4 – Convex Hull • 5 – Thinning • 6 – Thickening • 7 – Skeletons

26. 9.5.1 Boundary Extraction • First, erode A by B, then make set difference between A and the erosion • The thickness of the contour depends on the size of constructing object – B

27. 9.5.1 Boundary Extraction

28. 9.5.2 Region Filling • This algorithm is based on a set of dilations, complementation and intersections • p is the point inside the boundary, with the value of 1 • X(k) = (X(k-1) xor B) conjunction with complemented A • The process stops when X(k) = X(k-1) • The result that given by union of A and X(k), is a set contains the filled set and the boundary

29. 9.5.2 Region Filling

30. 9.5.3 Extraction of Connected Components • This algorithm extracts a component by selecting a point on a binary object A • Works similar to region filling, but this time we use in the conjunction the object A, instead of it’s complement

31. 9.5.3 Extraction of Connected Components

32. This shows automated inspection of chicken-breast, that contains bone fragment The original image is thresholded We can get by using this algorithm the number of pixels in each of the connected components Now we could know if this food contains big enough bones and prevent hazards

33. 9.5.4 Convex Hull • A is said to be convex if a straight line segment joining any two points in A lies entirely within A • The convex hull H of set S is the smallest convex set containing S • Convex deficiency is the set difference H-S • Useful for object description • This algorithm iteratively applying the hit-or-miss transform to A with the first of B element, unions it with A, and repeated with second element of B

35. 9.5.5 Thinning • The thinning of a set A by a structuring element B, can be defined by terms of the hit-and-miss transform: • A more useful expression for thinning A symmetrically is based on a sequence of structuring elements: {B}={B1, B2, B3, …, Bn} • Where Bi is a rotated version of Bi-1. Using this concept we define thinning by a sequence of structuring elements:

36. 9.5.5 Thinning cont • The process is to thin by one pass with B1 , then thin the result with one pass with B2, and so on until A is thinned with one pass with Bn. • The entire process is repeated until no further changes occur. • Each pass is preformed using the equation:

37. 9.5.5 Thinning example

38. 9.5.6 Thickening • Thickening is a morphological dual of thinning. • Definition of thickening . • As in thinning, thickening can be defined as a sequential operation: • the structuring elements used for thickening have the same form as in thinning, but with all 1’s and 0’s interchanged.

39. 9.5.6 Thickening - cont • A separate algorithm for thickening is often used in practice, Instead the usual procedure is to thin the background of the set in question and then complement the result. • In other words, to thicken a set A, we form C=Ac , thin C and than form Cc. • depending on the nature of A, this procedure may result in some disconnected points. Therefore thickening by this procedure usually require a simple post-processing step to remove disconnected points.

40. 9.5.6 Thickening example preview • We will notice in the next example 9.22(c) that the thinned background forms a boundary for the thickening process, this feature does not occur in the direct implementation of thickening • This is one of the reasons for using background thinning to accomplish thickening.

41. 9.5.6 Thickening example

42. 9.5.7 Skeleton • The notion of a skeleton S(A) of a set A is intuitively defined, we deduce from this figure that: • If z is a point of S(A) and (D)z is the largest disk centered in z and contained in A (one cannot find a larger disk that fulfils this terms) – this disk is called “maximum disk”. • The disk (D)z touches the boundary of A at two or more different places.

43. 9.5.7 Skeleton • The skeleton of A is defined by terms of erosions and openings: • with • Where B is the structuring element and indicates k successive erosions of A: • k times, and K is the last iterative step before A erodes to an empty set, in other words: • in conclusion S(A) can be obtained as the union of skeleton subsets Sk(A).

44. 9.5.7 Skeleton Example

45. 9.5.7 Skeleton • A can be also reconstructed from subsets Sk(A) by using the equation: • Where denotes k successive dilations of Sk(A) that is:

46. 9.6 Gray-Scale Images • In gray scale images on the contrary to binary images we deal with digital image functions of the form f(x,y) as an input image and b(x,y) as a structuring element. • (x,y) are integers from Z*Z that represent a coordinates in the image. • f(x,y) and b(x,y) are functions that assign gray level value to each distinct pair of coordinates. • For example the domain of gray values can be 0-255, whereas 0 – is black, 255- is white.

47. 9.6 Gray-Scale Images

48. 9.6.1 Dilation – Gray-Scale • Equation for gray-scale dilation is: • Df and Db are domains of f and b. • The condition that (s-x),(t-y) need to be in the domain of f and x,y in the domain of b, is analogous to the condition in the binary definition of dilation, where the two sets need to overlap by at least one element.

49. 9.6.1 Dilation – Gray-Scale (cont) • We will illustrate the previous equation in terms of 1-D. and we will receive an equation for 1 variable: • The requirements the (s-x) is in the domain of f and x is in the domain of b imply that f and b overlap by at least one element. • Unlike the binary case, f, rather than the structuring element b is shifted. • Conceptually f sliding by b is really not different than b sliding by f.

50. 9.6.1 Dilation – Gray-Scale (cont) • The general effects of performing dilation on a gray scale image is twofold: • If all the values of the structuring elements are positive than the output image tends to be brighter than the input. • Dark details either are reduced or elimanted, depending on how their values and shape relate to the structuring element used for dilation